Faithful Police Officer Retires

At 113 Pounds, German Shepherd Proved To Be Big Dog On The Force

December 01, 1999|By John Flink.

NORTH CHICAGO — In law enforcement circles, a 113-pound 9-year-old wouldn't be much of an enforcer. Most officers are a lot bigger, and most departments require officers to be in their 20s before they can even take the entrance exam.

But an officer of the above description recently retired from the North Chicago Police Department, and was the recipient of a City Council resolution recognizing his exemplary work in building searches, narcotics sweeps and crowd control.

The officer's name is Harro, and he was the city's one-dog canine unit. Ask the cops, and they say he was all the dog they needed.

"Harro is the most impressive specimen of a German shepherd I've ever seen," said North Chicago Police Chief Elisha Irvin. "He could do anything you could ask of a dog, and he served us very well."

Harro came to the department in 1994 via Tops in Dog Training in Grayslake, which is one of only four state-approved police dog training academies in Illinois.

Experts at Tops chose him from candidates bred in Germany specifically to be working dogs. When he was paired up with North Chicago Police Patrol Officer Darcie Brown--his only partner until he retired this year--3-year-old Harro weighed about 85 pounds, just on the high side of average for a male German shepherd.

"But then we put him to work, and I started bringing him home every night, giving him an active work life and a comfortable home life. And he just grew and grew," Brown said of her partner's unusual growth spurt. "He topped out at 117 pounds."

The department hadn't had any canine officers since the 1960s. Harro was "hired" based on a proposal Brown took to then-Police Chief Ernest Fisher. A dog and eight weeks of full-time training for dog and handler at Tops costs $8,000.

Lean and muscular even in retirement, Harro's eyes sparkle with intelligence. But the main impression Harro makes on most observers is his mass.

"Ninety pounds is considered very large for a male German shepherd, so Harro must be a very imposing dog--probably especially good at crowd control, I'd guess," said Tucson, Ariz., resident Gail Sprock, editor of the German Shepherd Dog Review, the magazine of the German Shepherd Dog Club of America.

"Using Harro for crowd control is like parting the Red Sea," Brown agreed. "He's the biggest police dog in Lake County."

German shepherds were first bred in 1899 by German aristocrat Max von Stephanitz for "the service of mankind," according to literature provided by Sprock.

Today, Harro, who is likely to live another three to five years, has taken up permanent residence at Brown's North Chicago home. His former department has two dogs in training at Tops to replace him.

"Most police dogs retire because they develop problems, usually in the hips," Brown said. "Harro should still have another year or so left, but he was retired early because of me. My shoulders started to go because of all the years of pulling on his lead. But I don't mind. He's a great partner."